1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shielded electrical connector, and more particularly, to a new and improved electrical connector providing a separate shielded compartment for each pair of terminated signal wires contained in twisted pair transmission cables and a grounding mechanism for a drain wire in each such cable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A twisted pair transmission cable includes a twisted pair of signal wires and a drain wire, all of which are enclosed in an outer insulation jacket. These cables are used to interconnect components in telephone switching systems. The signal wires in each such cable normally are terminated with an electrical terminal. These terminals are adpated to be mounted in electrical connectors so that they may be mated with other connectors so as to provide an interface between the various components of the telephone switching system. For example, the cables coupled to a shielded receptacle may be mated to a shielded header.
Due to the type of signals being transmitted over these signal wires and the spacing between adjacent terminals in the connector, the terminated pair of signal wires need to be individually shielded within the electrical connector. One connector for terminating multiple conductors is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,383. The connector disclosed in that patent includes a ground structure having channels formed by walls projecting from upper and lower working surfaces. While the terminated wires are individually shielded from each other by the walls forming the channels in the ground structure, a separate ground structure within the connector housing is required to form the channels for shielding of the individual terminals mounted in the connector. Another high density modular electrical connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,345. The connector includes plastic housing modules and an outer molded plastic cover. The terminals in this connector are disposed in separate compartments but the compartments cannot provide any shielding for the individual terminals because the walls of the compartments are plastic. Similarly, PCT Publication No. WO 87/07441 and Japanese Application 62-281281 disclose a connector in which contacts are disposed in retaining channels within the connector housing. These channels are formed by individual housing sections that are mounted within the connector.
While connectors have been made for disposing individual terminated signal wires in separate compartments, these connectors include separate components mounted in the connector housing in order to form the compartments into which the terminated signal wires are disposed. Moreover, these connectors do not provide for an efficient way of coupling to ground potential the drain wires used in twisted pair cables.